Safe & Sound
by OneDreamADay
Summary: Victor is selected to be Reaped. Sherlock waits for him to come back alive. [Viclock]
1. Chapter 1

It's Reaping Day and Victor wakes up to Sherlock pounding on his door.

Victor scowls at being woken up so early (he's not the biggest morning person) and actually considers ignoring Sherlock for a few more minutes, but then his mother comes bursting into his room with an exasperated sigh.

"We both knock he'll keep knocking until you answer," She grumbles as she pulls the covers off of him. "Now please invite your boyfriend in,"

Victor groans. "You could have let him in, Mum," but she shut bedroom door and he's pretty sure she didn't hear him at all.

Another knocks sounds and Victor rushes to the door, to a displeased Sherlock. "That took forever,"

Victor smiles sheepishly. "Yeah sorry," He locates a loaf of bread and breaks it in half, holding it out to the older boy. It's hard as hell, but not too old, even by District 12 standards. "You eat?"

Sherlock nods in agreement and Victors eats his meager breakfast, bread and water. He eyes Sherlock's clothes. A well worn out shirt and a cast pair of trousers that once belonged to his brother. "That's what you're wearing? Aren't you suppose to look your best?"

"I am." is the curt reply and Victor stops talking.

He knows the reason why Sherlock's on edge today. Both of them are eighteen, the last year for them to be selected to be Reaped.

Mycroft, Sherlock's brother, was Reaped when Sherlock was eight. He made it four days, then died. Ever since, Sherlock's held a large amount of pent-up anger towards the Games.

Victor's mother is more or less the same. She lost a younger sister, who was fourteen at the time, six days into the game; her head smashed to bits by a rock. His father died when he was eleven, from illness (most like from working in the mines) and with Victor as her only living relatives, he fears for his mother's sanity if he were to be selected.

Finishing his bread and gulping down the rest of his water, Victor goes to put on his best clothes.

* * *

They stand in neat little rows, standing by age from youngest (in the front) to oldest (in the back). Girls on the left, boys on the right.

Just as he does every year, Victor prays for no one he knows to be selected (That didn't prevent Mycroft being Reaped, his mind supplies bitterly)

The escort, a lady by the name of Irene Adler, comes to the stage. She's by no means flashy, at least not as much some of the escorts in the other districts, but with the all black she was wearing, it certainly fits.

The perfect outfit when selecting children to be murdered. (Though he'll never say that out loud)

She gives the same boring speech as last year and the year before that. Though this year, she does try to put some excitement in her voice.

Finally, the moment everyone has been dreading, comes up. "Let's start with the ladies, shall we?" She says in that mocking sweet voice.

Her hand digs around dramatically in the bowl for what seems like forever, and finally she pulls out a slip. She clears her throat and calls out.

"Molly Hooper!" Victor's not too familiar with her, though he has seen her around. She's fourteen, small, quiet and skinny with dark brown hair, she walks slowly as the guards escort her to the stage. When Irene congratulates her, she cries.

Undeterred, the woman moves to the next bowl. "And now for the men." Again with the dramatic digging, and the slip of paper comes out. She pauses for effect, then read the name.

"Victor Trevor!"

There's a ringing in his ears, and he can hear his mother let out a loud cry, and Sherlock's looking horrified. For a moment, the teen looks like he wants to say something, but it passes and lets led to the stage by the Peacekeepers.

Irene smiles at them both. "Here's our lucky winners this year!"

Victor wants to vomit.

* * *

Five minutes is all he gets with his mother. That doesn't seem like much at all.

She hugs him close.

"I'm sorry for being you into this world," is all she says.

Victor waits for Sherlock to appear. To say goodbye or something.

He doesn't.

* * *

Never has he wants Sherlock next to him right now. Sherlock, who probably won't be throwing up into a toilet right now and would be smarting off at every adult in his immediate eyesight.

When he comes out the loo, Molly Hooper is there, giving him a small smile with a glass of water. He uses it to rinse his mouth and gives her a grateful smile.

"It feels like I'm in a nightmare," she says as they wait for their mentors to show up.

Victor makes a noncommittal noise, too nervous to talk.

Victor's mentor is Gregory Lestrade, a man who won the Games when he was sixteen. He looks grizzled and worn-out and Victor wonders if that's a side-effect from having to teach children to kill each other year after year.

There's been no winner from District 12 since Greg himself won almost twenty years ago.

Victor hopes to win this year, but at the same time, he doesn't.

* * *

"How did you win?" He asks Greg while they are eating.

Greg gives his a haunted look. "Don't think about them as people, as kids, because that will get you killed fast. Don't ever hesitate because that'll get you killed even faster."

* * *

Everything passes in a blur.

Victor remembers training, because that's the only time Greg will actually talk to him; any other time, the mentor ignores him.

He probably realizes that Victor will quickly be dead meat.

Still though, he does his best during the training sessions. He knows all the edible berries and plants and knows which ones will kill you in a matter of minutes.

"You're not that fast, but you're smart and you can think quickly," Greg says and Victor takes that as a compliment; it's the first one he's gotten so far.

When one has a boyfriend that's Sherlock Holmes, you have no choice, least you earn his wrath of being an insufferable idiot.

* * *

Victor earns a six after his session with the game makers, Molly earns a four.

"Well, we know who the easy pickings are," drawls a voice and Victor turns to see one of the Career boys, District Two's James Moriarty. He earns a strong nine for his score and he reeks of smugness. The teen next to him, District One's Sebastian, earns an eight.

They look at Molly like a wolf would a lamb, and on instinct, Victor steps in front of her. He doesn't say anything, just stares them down and they leave.

Molly shifts from foot to foot and blushes. "Thanks for that. You didn't have to."

"Try and stick up for yourself. I won't be able to protect you in the arena."

* * *

"I have someone waiting for me back home," Victor tries to look embarrassed about it, wringing his hands and blushing. He doesn't pacifically gender, he doesn't need to. None of them will care, not one bit because, in the end all of this is just entertainment to them.

"I want to ask them to marry me when I win. Because I'm going to do just that," The crowd aww's and cheers for him and the minutes he's away from the camera, Victor rolls his eyes about it all.

* * *

"I need to win for my dad. He's sick, you see. When I win, I can give him the best medicine there is and get him all better." Victor doesn't know if the tears in her are real or not, but the audience has Molly's sympathy.

* * *

"My dad's gonna die," Molly says during dinner that night. "It's terminal; the doctor can do nothing for him."

She gives him a watery smile. "I'm gonna die too. I don't think I'll make it past the first day."

"You're smarter than you give yourself credit for." And it's the truth. Victor knows she's good at tracking animals, knows the human body good enough to wear she could lay a fatal blow if aimed correctly.

The real problem is that she lacks the nerve to hurt, to kill someone. It's a liability that can cost her her life.

* * *

The night before the games, Victor's all nerve and fights the urge to scream.

He thinks of home, of Sherlock, anxiously waiting for him to come back and hopes like that he'll live through this.

Or, if he doesn't, for a quick and painless death.


	2. Chapter 2

Sherlock feels angry at a lot of things right now.

At The Capitol for having these stupid Games; at the Districts, for rebelling all those years ago; at all the parents who are stupid enough to having kids, only for the Capitol to use then as entertainment each years.

He's watching the screen with his mother and father, and Victor's mother. Her eyes are red-rimmed and he can tell she's been crying all night.

In a rare moment of kindness, he grabs her hand, squeezes it tightly.

"He'll make it through it," He says, comforting not only her, but himself as well. "Vic will make it out alive."

– - - - - - - -

_He dreams of clinging to Mycroft, begging him not to go._

_Someone pulls them apart and he's forced to watch on the TV as everyone fight and kills each other. He roots for his brother the whole time, sure that his smart older brother is going to win._

_But he doesn't. A girl from another district stabs him in the stomach, steals his supplies and leaves him to bleed out._

_He pulls his eyes from the television for a moment, and when he looks again, Mycroft's body is replaced with Victor's._

The deaths have added up overnight (a teen boy from District 8 killing himself with nightlock berries and one of the Career boys turned traitor and killed two of his allies in their sleep.)

After the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, that leaves thirteen alive.

Molly and Victor have allied each other for the time being, and they are currently hiding in a cave, away from the high winds. Lucky for them, the cave is nice and deep and dry, so they have no worries about anyone finding them for the moment when Victor lights a fire.

They talk about strategy for a while and Sherlock finds himself scoffing at Molly 'wait-it-out' plan. If anything, that's more lightly to get them killed. Or have them starve to death.

Thankful, Victor has the idea of keep moving, kept their guard up and, try to pick out the weaker ones. Molly looks upset at the idea of killing anyone and Victor fixes her with a hard stare.

"You don't have a choice- no one does now. Either you kill or you get killed. Take your pick."

\- - - - –

As it turns out, Molly gets her first kill later that day.

A girl from District 6 attacks them.

She has fucking sword of all things and tries to stab Molly with it. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on the person) she can't lift it that well, and Molly, acting on pure adrenaline, stabs the girl in the neck. The girl falls to the ground, hand adding pressure to her neck and Molly stabs her again in the neck, this time hitting where the jugular vein would be.

The girl lets out a wet gurgling sound, then dies. His mum lets out a gasp. "That poor girl,"

Sherlock's not sure if she's referring to the dead tribute or Molly.

\- - – - - -

Molly prays, as it turns out.

Real actual prayers that aren't said in the midst of fear. She bends down on her knees every night and all of them start the same.

"Dear Lord, thank you for protecting me and Victor for another day and please watch us during the night..."

She prays for various things, food, fresh water, gifts from .

They always end the same: "Please take those who've died into your Arms and give them everlasting peace."

– - - -

In the morning, sponsors send the two some water and food. Victor is quick to erase all evidence of them being in the area before moving on.

Sherlock watches on screen as Molly gives Victor a bright smile and pretends that he doesn't feel a tiny bit jealous when the older boy returns it.

There's really no reason to be jealous of a soon-to-be-dead girl anyways.

\- – - - - -

The girl from District 11, Sally, is a tiny thing, Sherlock muses as she comes on the screen. But she's a hell of a fighter, already taking down two people during the Bloodbath.

She's already come into the games ready to fight and it shows.

That's probably why Victor and Molly are hesitant to help her, even though she's begging for medication. There's a bloodstain on her leg, mostly likely from a knife wound and it's bleeding heavily.

Then, as if things were already bad, it gets worse.


	3. Chapter 3

'We shouldn't trust her," his instincts screams, and Victor wants to agree with them. Helping others never ends well on the helper's part.

'It's a trap,' he tells himself; expecting someone to pop from the woods, to start shooting or throwing weapons. But none of that happens. Sally just stands there, pleading for some first-aid.

"What's in it for us?" Molly asks, and Sally holds out two apples.

"I just want some help. There's no trick or anything, I swear."

Swearing doesn't mean much, but Victor gives her bandages and ointment. "That's all we got," which is a lie, but Sally doesn't need to know what. She takes the items, hands over the apples and is about to turn and leave when a voice stops her.

"Well, well, well, 'Bastion, I do believe out rabbit led us to some new friends." Victor looks up to see Jim Moriarty stand there, the brute of a boy, Sebastian Moran is next to him.

It's easy to see where Sally got the wound on her leg, with Sebastian holding up a spear with blood on the blade.

"Figured you'd either lead us to your hideout or to other people- not so hard to find you when you're bleeding all over the place."

Two against three aren't bad odds, but when the two are Careers and with one injured person, the odds shift by a lot to the opposing side.

Jim pulls out a gun, (_a fucking gun, really) _ and Victor know they are in trouble. Sally has a crossbow, himself and Molly have melee weapons, a mace and knife, respectively.

Then, just to be an asshole, Moran start singing "_eenie, meenie,minny, moe," _and Victor know he needs to fucking move before he's dead.

He quickly moves as swings the mace and can hear the 'thwap' as it connects to the teen's head, he falls to the ground and suddenly there's a melee around him, but he don't care about that; he wants to make sure that he's going to leave this area alive.

He uses the hilt to strike the boy on top of his head, once twice, three times. For the final blow, he lifts the mace over his head and brings the sharp edge down into Sebastian's skull.

He can hear the cannon fire go off, and then he remembers the tributes behind him. Sally and Jim are gone. Molly's there, on the ground, bleeding from a stab wound in her chest. She's bleeding out fast and he realizes that he won't be able to do anything for her.

Victor wants to do something, but his brain just freezes, and he watches as Molly takes her last breath, then dies.

He gathers the food and items she had and crams them in his bag. He gives Molly's body one last look, then moves on.

He feels like he should more broken up about her death, but he's not.

Not really.

It's just one less killer he has to worry about coming after him.

\- – – –

It's raining and Mutts are released into the arena, then it becomes everyone for themselves. Victor scrambles up a cliff to get out of their reach and sees Sebastian trying to do the same thing.

"Help me!" He screams, fighting to get out of the range of their jaws. The creatures are right at his heels, biting and snarling and growling.

But he doesn't move to help, instead, he run away, hears Sebastian yelling, then screaming, then nothing.

That night, three cannon are heard, and the count down to becoming the victor truly begins

The final showdown,comes down to him and Jim, in the end. Jim's eying with that blood-thirty look and Victor he won't be able to come out unscathed.

Jim laughs, and that's the only warning he has before the Career is on him, knife at his neck. He feels pain, the bite of the blade taking over his entire thought process.

He turns, trying to throw Jim off of him, but that doesn't work. So he jerks his head forward, smashing his head into Jim. He lets out a scream and back away, nose bloody and snarls, coming back towards him, knife out.

They both fall to the ground, snarling at each other like animals and rolling around. Victor tries to avoid the knife most of the time. Jim wraps a hold of his hair and yanks hard and Victor yells as his hair is pulled out.

Victor smashes a fist into Jim's face, once, twice, feels Jim's nose give away and he rolls again, pinning the other boy's in a river. He holds Jim down, and all he can see is red.

There's pressure at his leg, warm and wet from his own blood, but he ignores it. His eyes are focused on Jim, face bright red and he's almost impressed by Jim, the fight he gives.

Victor holds him under the water until he hears the cannons off.


End file.
